


i am a wreck (when i'm without you)

by sky_of_starflowers



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, First Kiss, First Meetings, Getting Together, Love Confessions, M/M, don't worry the ofc is a psychic who ships destiel, no capitalization, takes place some time after season 13, the empty? don't know her
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-19
Updated: 2020-12-19
Packaged: 2021-03-11 00:01:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,117
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28175844
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sky_of_starflowers/pseuds/sky_of_starflowers
Summary: castiel risks going to earth and seeing dean winchester for the first time in 2003.-still using his vessel from the lily sunder incident, castiel breaks the proper chain of events to meet dean winchester early.
Relationships: Castiel/Dean Winchester
Comments: 4
Kudos: 39





	i am a wreck (when i'm without you)

**Author's Note:**

> so, for clarification, cas is using his unnamed female vessel from 12x10 for the first half, and then he moves onto jimmy. 
> 
> i'm not dead! i've been working on this for almost a month and it's done!
> 
> title is from ricky montgomery's song "line without a hook" because it's been going through my head for a month

castiel risks going to earth and seeing dean winchester for the first time in 2003.

his vessel from the last time he was on earth, a woman named rosalie, had agreed to stay with him until the next time he went to earth after the lily sunder fiasco. after that, she wanted to go to heaven.

it wasn’t unheard of, it just meant that the next time castiel came to earth, which would presumably be after he pulled the righteous man from hell, he was going to have to find a new vessel.

castiel arrives in the town that dean winchester has been staying in for nearly a week, the longest that he’s stayed in one place for as long as castiel has been considering meeting dean. he’s invisible at first, which proves to be a wise choice since clothing has changed quite a bit since the last time castiel was on earth.

he watches the people coming in and out of the bar where dean winchester is, and, after about fifteen minutes, creates an outfit that castiel thinks wouldn’t be out of place in the bar. then he walks in.

it’s fairly easy for castiel to spot dean winchester, but he can’t help but be surprised. he hadn’t expected dean winchester to be so…bright.

dean winchester’s soul shines like the sun in the bar, everyone else glowing like distant stars. castiel stands just inside the door for a long moment, stunned by the realization of just how easy it’ll be to spot dean winchester in hell.

he manages to look past the soul and at the face, green eyes barely seen thanks to the bar’s dim lighting. castiel studies the face a little and thinks, _he’s handsome, by human standards_. he gets bumped by other bar-goers for the fifth time so castiel goes to sit at the bar, still watching dean.

a couple of hours pass like that, castiel sitting at the bar with a perfunctory glass of alcohol sitting in front of him on the countertop. (the bartender had looked at him with a strange look when castiel hadn’t ordered anything in the first hour, so he had told her to order whatever she liked best.)

at about the two and a half hour mark, a red-haired woman walks up to dean winchester – not the first person to deliberately seek him out, but certainly the first to not press herself up against dean winchester’s side like she belongs there.

“my friend over there has been watching you,” the red-haired woman says, gesturing to the bar. dean looks up and his eyes skim over the people at the bar. castiel doesn’t immediately look away when dean looks at him, but he does make an effort to do so after a couple of seconds. it wouldn’t do to bring undue attention to himself. “i think you should go say hi,” the woman says when dean looks at her again.

dean snorts before taking a sip from his glass. “and why would i do that?” he looks at the bar again, but he turns back to the woman just as quickly.

the woman smiles, and castiel wonders what game she’s playing. it’s taken him the entirety of her conversation with dean winchester, but castiel realizes that the red-haired woman is a psychic. _she must’ve known i would come_ , he thinks.

“why not?” the psychic asks dean, to which dean just nods and raises his glass to her. she keeps smiling at dean, so castiel takes a moment to tune into angel radio. as soon as he’s confirmed that no one’s noticed his absence, he turns back to dean.

who is no longer where he had been the entire night, and the psychic is smiling across the bar at castiel.

“have fun,” she says, apparently fully aware that castiel can hear her across the relatively crowded bar. she waggles her fingers at him in what he thinks is a wave before disappearing into the crowd.

at this point, castiel is certain that this experience is nothing like what he expected. he’s fairly certain that he is prepared for anything else that could come his way.

what he doesn’t expect is for dean to come sauntering up to him with a smile and a look in his eyes that castiel doesn’t know the meaning behind.

“mind if i join you?” dean asks, gesturing to the barstool next to castiel. he lets dean do what he pleases, glad that he had forgone rosalie’s old dress for something more period-appropriate, although it did seem to cover more skin than other outfits at the bar.

dean taps the bar to catch the bartender’s attention and gestures for a refill. that accomplished, he turns back to castiel. “i’d offer to buy you a drink, but it looks like you’ve got that covered,” he says, nodding to the still-untouched drink in front of castiel.

“yes, i’m…fine,” castiel says after a moment of trying to determine _why_ dean winchester was talking to him when, by all accounts, he shouldn’t even know that castiel is there. castiel spares a moment to look around the bar and try to find the psychic again to no avail. she seems to have left as soon as dean sat down next to castiel.

castiel’s moment of inattention doesn’t go unnoticed. “yeah, your friend sent me over.” dean smiles at castiel as he takes a sip of his refilled drink. “thought it’d be nice.” he puts his drink down, leaning his elbow on to the bar. “i’m dean.”

for a moment, castiel considers telling dean his real name. “my name is rosalie,” he says instead and in the back of his head, where rosalie’s consciousness lives, he hears, _clever, castiel. i’ll allow it. this **is** why you came to earth, after all._

dean’s shoulders fall from where they’d been raised, and castiel realizes that dean had been expecting castiel to either disregard him or tell him to leave castiel alone in the time that it took castiel to reply. “nice to meet you, rosalie,” dean says, moving to take a sip of his drink. “you new in town?”

“yes. i’m only passing through for the night,” castiel says, as honest as possible. it’s not that he’s incapable of lying, but castiel finds that it leaves a sour taste in his mouth when he does. “and you?”

dean shrugs, keeping his eyes down as he puts the glass back onto the bar. “in town on business. tonight’s my last night though,” he adds, looking up at castiel from under his eyelashes. “i thought i might try to find some company for the night.”

it’s then that castiel thinks, _oh, he wants to bed me_. the thought does something to castiel, flipping rosalie’s stomach. _i like him_ , rosalie thinks from her corner. _and i think you like him too._ there’s a long moment where castiel just stares at dean, still processing the revelation. rosalie breaks the silence by saying, _you’re allowed to be intimate with him, castiel. there’s nothing that forbids it_.

“that’s very flattering,” castiel says instead, “but i’m afraid i’m not looking for company.”

dean’s smile doesn’t change, nor does the look in his eye. “maybe, but i’m hoping that i’ll be able to change your mind.”

castiel does the only thing he can think of. he grabs the full, fruity and alcohol-heavy drink in front of him and downs it all at once. dean whistles when castiel puts the empty glass back on the counter with a slightly muffled _thud_. “i think i’ll let you buy that drink now,” castiel tells him, and, if at all possible, dean’s smirk becomes even more pronounced.

what follows is several hours of intelligent conversation, the likes of which castiel honestly hadn’t been expecting from dean winchester. of course he knows that dean, being the righteous man, would likely be clever, but castiel honestly hadn’t expected intelligence which, in hindsight, seems rude.

castiel sips at his drink for the rest of the night, dean calling for a refill only twice as he tries to drink at castiel’s snail pace. before either of them know it, the bar is closing for the night and castiel is aware that he’s been away from heaven for far too long.

“i guess that’s our cue to go,” dean says as the bartender sweeps behind the bar, a lot of the servers sending them dirty looks. they seem to be the only two non-employed people left in the bar. dean pulls out a wad of cash to pay for his tab – and castiel’s .

“you don’t need to do that,” castiel says, even though he is all too aware of the fact that there is no way he would’ve been able to pay for his drinks on his own.

dean shrugs with a smile. “no sweat. you can pay for our next date,” he says, shooting castiel a flirtatious wink. it’s not the first one of the night, but castiel has a feeling that it’ll be the last.

outside of the bar, castiel stares up at the sky. he’s afraid to tune into angel radio, to hear what he’s missed over the past few hours. “i supposed this is where we part ways,” he says when dean comes to stand beside him.

surprisingly, dean looks just as reluctant to leave castiel as castiel feels. “at least let me walk you to your hotel room,” he says, gesturing to a beautiful black car, one of the few left in the parking lot.

castiel _could_ conceivably just whisk dean and his car back to his motel and let dean think that he was jut too drunk to remember what happened outside of the bar. still, castiel doesn’t want to leave just yet. “i think that counts more as driving than walking.”

“either way,” dean says with a bright smile, “a lady should never trust dark streets at night when traveling by herself.” castiel follows dean to the car with a shake of his head. he stops shy of actually getting in though, history radiating off of the car’s body. “you like her? a ’67 chevy impala,” dean says proudly, patting the car’s hood. he leans forward after a moment and whispers, “i like to call her baby.”

castiel thinks that if inanimate objects could have thoughts and feelings that dean winchester’s impala would like being called baby. “i see why,” castiel says instead, running a reverent hand up the hood, along the edge of the windshield, and pulling open the passenger side’s door, silently questioning himself when he hesitates to sit.

thankfully, dean has no such reservations and slides through the driver’s side door into the seat behind the wheel. “so, which hotel are you staying at?”

castiel doesn’t know hotels, so he does a momentary search around town, picking one that rosalie makes an approving noise at. “the best western,” he says when he’s back in the impala.

“fancy,” dean says, starting the car. he glances at castiel before checking his mirrors and backing out of the parking space. “i never asked, where’re you going? once you leave town,” dean clarifies when castiel looks at him with his eyebrows furrowed together.

he’s been skirting the truth with dean all evening, which makes this question more difficult to answer than the others. “home,” castiel eventually says, music playing quietly in the background. he turns to look out the window, focusing on the passing lights to avoid tuning into angel radio.

it’s obviously not the answer dean was expecting given the way castiel feels dean’s eyes on him. “home, huh?” castiel hums, and dean’s quick to look back at the road – even if it is almost empty. “don’t go that often?”

“often enough. i work there,” castiel says with a wry look when dean glances at him.

dean’s shoulders lose some of their tension with the reassurance that he’s not landed on a delicate topic. “anything interesting?” he asks with a renewed smile.

rosalie laughs in his head when castiel replies, “the family business.” dean’s foot hits the brakes briefly, causing the impala to jerk, before dean recovers and the ride continues smoothly. “it’s hard to explain.”

“i know the feeling,” dean says, but now he looks at castiel with a different look, like he’s trying to figure out what he missed. castiel knows that dean doesn’t have the means to determine that castiel is an angel, and even if he did, he doubts dean would believe him.

soon enough, dean makes the turn into the best western parking lot, pulling into a space in the corner. castiel checks the rooms and picks an empty one to be “his.” “thank you for the ride,” castiel says once the car is off, moving to leave.

dean opens the driver’s side door before castiel even gets a hand on the door. “i said i’d walk you to the door, didn’t i?” he slides out with a wink.

 _i know i already said it, but i like him_ , rosalie says, and castiel ignores her in favor of opening the passenger side door, not bothering to straighten his clothes as he gets out. “my room’s on the second floor,” castiel says as he walks up to where dean waits in front of the impala’s trunk.

“lead the way,” dean replies with a sweep of his hand.

they don’t speak on their way to “castiel’s” room, but they’re close enough that their arms brush while they walk. _he’s looking at our ass_ , rosalie says as they go up the stairs, castiel heading up with dean following. when castiel glances back, he’s unsurprised to find dean flick his eyes distinctively _up_ to meet castiel’s . rosalie seems more amused than anything when dean smiles up at castiel.

“this is me,” castiel says, stopping at a door about halfway down from the stairs.

dean presses a little closer, leaning into castiel’s space. “you sure i can’t persuade you to have some company for the night?”

not for the first time that night, castiel seriously considers it. then – “ _castiel_?” uriel calls.

rosalie’s stomach drops. “i’m afraid not,” castiel says, and he’s not sure if his voice just sounds shaky to his ears or not. dean drops his smile, concern crossing his face, and that’s how castiel knows that he wasn’t imagining it. “my family would disapprove.”

dean nods, some of his concern disappearing at that. “i get it.” he smiles again, smaller and truer than before. “any chance could i get a good night kiss instead?”

castiel considers it for a moment. rosalie was right that there was nothing stopping castiel from being intimate with dean, but castiel had been gone from heaven too long. “i could be convinced,” he says, giving dean a small smile.

dean brings a hand up to cup castiel’s jaw, and castiel nods, in case dean had any doubts. it’s dean that leans down, but it’s castiel that closes the space between them, pressing their lips together. castiel makes sure that it stays chaste, but he can’t help sighing through his nose when dean tilts his head so that their noses slide together. dean’s thumb slides along castiel’s cheek, and castiel brings up a hand to wrap his fingers around dean’s wrist.

moments later, dean pulls back, opening his eyes slowly. castiel hadn’t even realized he’d closed his eyes as dean had leaned in. “ _castiel?_ ” someone calls, and castiel suddenly understands the phrase “like a bucket of cold water.”

“i have to go,” castiel says, his voice quiet.

dean leans his forehead against castiel’s. “no more persuasion?” castiel shakes his head and dean sighs. “don’t suppose i could get your number? in case i swing by where you’re headed?”

castiel shakes his head. “i’m afraid not,” he says, forcing himself to pull back. he doesn’t dislodge dean’s hand though, taking a moment to soak up the touch.

dean sighs again, rubbing his thumb across castiel’s cheek one more time before dropping his hand back down to his side. “well, lemme just say, i’m glad i met you, rosalie,” he says with a smile.

castiel swallows, nodding. “i’m glad i met you as well. goodbye, dean.” he stops himself just shy of saying dean’s full name. before he can think to do anything reckless, castiel turns to the door and opens it, forcing the handle to turn. he smiles at dean once he’s in the room, closing the door slower than he intended as he and dean keep staring at each other.

when the door’s finally shut, castiel stands there for a moment before flying back to heaven, letting rosalie go and returning to his garrison. he’s questioned, of course, as to where he’s been, and the rest of them seem satisfied with his answer of “watching demonic movements.”

several hours later, when castiel is alone again, he turns his eye back towards earth, listening. he doesn’t hear anything unusual, let alone from dean winchester.

still. castiel can’t find it in himself to regret meeting dean winchester.

* * *

(castiel was right. it’s takes him almost no time at all to find dean winchester in hell. even after forty years, dean winchester’s soul shines.)

* * *

as the years pass, castiel becomes cas, and cas often thinks of the night he first met dean, the night he almost bedded dean winchester. there’s no use in wondering what would’ve happened if he’d followed through, but he does spend a lot of time thinking about the way dean kissed him, ever so gently.

it takes cas slightly longer to realize that he wants dean to remember that night, to have been more than an almost-one night stand. so cas decides to start to drop pieces of their conversation that night into conversation whenever he can.

he’s died – once, twice, three times – and nothing is scarier than the possibility of being nothing more than a forgotten memory.

most of the time cas says nothing more than a throwaway comment in reference to the night he first met dean, but there’s one conversation that turns the tide. he isn’t even aware of it.

“you think that jimmy was my first vessel?” cas asks during a conversation when sam and dean are throwing around theories about what happened to former angel vessels, one of them pointing out that jimmy was cas’s first vessel and therefore an outlier.

sam and dean glance at each other. “well, yeah,” sam says, his eyebrows furrowed together ever so slightly. across the table, dean nurses his coffee, nodding in agreement.

cas doesn’t bother trying not to roll his eyes. “of course jimmy isn’t my first vessel. people of his bloodline have hosted me several times over the centuries.” he smiles a little, thinking of rosalie’s sharp wit and stubbornness. “my last vessel was actually his great-great-grandmother, i believe.”

sam looks fascinated, and dean has an oddly thoughtful look on his face. “huh,” dean says, leaning back into his chair. “what was her name?”

“rosalie,” cas says without hesitation, forgetting that dean had, in fact, _met_ rosalie. he’s so caught up recalling rosalie that he misses the way dean blinks, narrowing his eyes as he thinks.

“wait, great-great-grandmother. would that be when the whole lily sunder thing happened?” sam asks, and cas nods. “wow. what was it like?”

cas frowns. “what was what like?”

sam blanks for a second. “being a woman,” he says, and cas just shakes his head.

“it was like being a man,” cas says. “rosalie as my host was much like jimmy when he first became my host. she didn’t see much combat, so she was willing to stay with me longer.”

he and sam get carried away, so cas doesn’t notice dean studying him until he returns to the conversation.

eventually, several weeks after his initial desire for dean to remember, cas sits down in the kitchen with a sigh, resigning himself to the fact that, yes, the night he first met dean winchester is not a night that dean winchester remembers, having been 24 and livelier than ever.

it’s just when cas puts his face in his hands that dean walks into the kitchen. “whoa, what’s got you all bothered?” dean asks, heading to the coffee maker, mug in hand.

cas would like to tell dean. cas has been _trying_ to tell dean. but cas has come to realize that maybe they just aren’t meant to be. maybe that night was all cas was meant to have, just a taste of something he could never keep.

not that cas can come right out and tell dean any of this. so instead he says, “it’s nothing. just – thinking.” dean hums, and cas can’t help the way he looks up when dean sits down across from him.

dean brings his mug up to his mouth, pausing when he sees cas looking at him. “what? didn’t want company?”

cas doesn’t shake his head, in case dean takes that to mean that cas actually doesn’t want to be sitting there with dean. “just surprised,” cas says, and dean shrugs, drinking his coffee.

the two of them sit there in silence for a good minute before dean breaks it. “y’know, recently i’ve been thinking about when i was hunting alone, while sam was at stanford,” he starts, and if cas was surprised before, he’s not quite sure what he is now. confused?

“as i recall,” cas says, during dean’s pause, “you were very proud about being allowed to hunt on your own, without your father’s supervision.”

dean hums again. “that’s true. cases took a lot longer then, since i didn’t know everything that was out there. hell, demons were still considered one of our most dangerous threats.” dean shoots cas a quick smile, and cas’s fully-human heart skips a beat it doesn’t need. “i remember, i stayed at this one town for almost a week cause i couldn’t figure out what was going on. reports said the town psychic claimed an angel was coming to visit the town, and i thought it might be something dangerous.”

cas swallows. this isn’t something dean’s ever told him before.

“so i waited there for a week, went to the bar the psychic frequented every night to try to figure out what her game was. my last night in town, she comes up to me,” dean says with a fond look, and cas’s stomach sinks. “i know what you’re thinking, but it wasn’t like that.

“my friend over there has been watching you, she says. of course, i’d known i was being watched, even as an idiot at 24. i think you should go say hi, the psychic says.

“why would i do that? i ask.

“why not? she shoots back. i’ll give her this – that is an excellent answer to most any question.

“so,” dean continues after another sip of coffee. cas’s bad feeling about this conversation’s only gotten worse since dean started explaining his conversation with the psychic. “i go over and talk to this woman. she’s beautiful, of course, older than most of the other people i’d seen frequenting the bar during my time there, but still beautiful. we talk, and i try to figure out what this woman wants.”

cas isn’t sure how he wanted this revelation to come about, but he’s certain it wasn’t like this. he’s not breathing – not that he needs to, but he’s not even faking it right now. he’s so focused on what he thinks dean is telling him that mimicking basic bodily functions is beyond him.

“turns out all she wants is to talk.” dean shoots cas a quick smile and adds, “of course, i tried to convince her otherwise.” cas remembers dean offering to walk him back to his hotel room, saying that a lady should never trust dark streets at night by herself. “even got so far as a good night kiss before she ran away on me.”

so, _so_ gently that cas got scared of what could happen that he disappeared into the empty hotel room before flying back to heaven, holding up his end of the deal and letting rosalie go to her heaven.

dean shook his head a little. “anyway, i stopped by her hotel room the next morning on my way out of town. no answer at her door, so i asked the clerk. turns out, nobody matching her name or description had rented out a hotel room there recently. the room i’d walked her to had been empty for two weeks.” he looks down at his coffee. “there was no harm done, so i let it go. eventually, i forgot.”

cas breathes for the first time in five minutes, the simple act of circulating air through his lungs reassuring. of course, he wanted dean to remember, he just hadn’t considered the outcome of dean remembering.

“until a couple of weeks ago,” dean continues, and cas stops breathing again, “when you said your last vessel was a woman named rosalie. one of jimmy’s ancestors, way up the novak line,” he adds with a wave of his hand.

cas clenches his hands under the table where they rest on his thighs. really, there’s only one answer of what dean did then, knowing his curiosity.

“i managed to find a photo of miss rosalie,” dean says, still avoiding cas’s eyes. “the internet – what can’t it do, right? anyway, she looks awful familiar.”

 _because you met her,_ cas thinks.

dean takes another sip of his coffee. “i’m wracking my brain wondering why she looks so familiar, besides sharing jimmy’s genes, when it hits me.” he finally, _finally_ , meets cas’s eyes, daring cas to look away. “and suddenly i wonder why i met an angel five years before i knew they existed.”

cas, for all of his knowledge and angelic experience, cannot think of a single thing to say. on one hand, dean remembers the night he and castiel first met, when cas was just another woman in dean’s long line and dean would go on slaying monsters on his own with no one to care whether he lived or died. on the other hand, dean knows that cas broke the rules, disregarded the sequence of events to meet dean and even went to far as to allow dean in, albeit under slightly false pretenses.

“dean, i –“ cas starts, but he cuts himself off just as quickly. does he have an explanation? an answer? something to satisfy dean’s curiosity? none of them seem good enough, so cas doesn’t say any of those things. instead, he says, “she was very fond of you.” dean raises an eyebrow, so cas continues. “rosalie. she enjoyed your humor and enjoyed watching us talk.”

it’s as close as cas can come to confirming that it was him, that he took rosalie with him to a bar in the middle of the u.s. and flirted with dean winchester until cas realized that someone was probably watching them.

dean smirks, taking another sip of his coffee. “i didn’t get the chance to be fond of her,” he says, and cas blinks. several times.

when he finally processes dean’s meaning, he’s a little red in the face. “i wasn’t exactly following orders when i met you that night,” cas says, tilting his head a little to convey a sense of _you know better_.

“oh i know. otherwise you probably wouldn’t have stopped me at a good night kiss,” dean says, not letting cas shy away from this conversation. “although, now that i know it was you, i’m glad you did stop me.”

there’s a lot of reasons why dean could be saying that, so cas reserves judgment for the moment. “why?”

dean puts his mug down, finally, looking at cas like he’s insane. “because i didn’t know you yet,” he says when it dawns on him that no, cas does not know why dean’s glad cas cut their first meeting short. dean takes a deep breath and cas thinks, _oh, we’re having a Feelings™ talk_. “i wouldn’t want you to be just some one night stand, cas. you’re family.”

cas’s stomach sinks. “like a brother,” he says, and he can’t help the disappointment plain in his voice.

luckily for him, dean’s shaking his head almost immediately. “not like a brother, cas. maybe to sam, but not to me.” dean holds cas’s gaze, willing cas to understand, but cas has spent too long keeping himself from reading too far into things to let himself break now. eventually, dean sighs, his shoulders dropping. “i like you, cas. hell, i’m pretty sure i’m in love with you. if you’d just been a one night stand, do you know how much that would’ve hurt?”

in all honesty, cas isn’t sure that he didn’t stop listening when he heard “i’m in love with you.” he’s trying to wrap his mind around the concept when dean starts leaning back, putting physical distance between the two of them. “you’re in love with me?” cas finally asks, clearly stunned by dean’s confession.

meanwhile, dean looks like he can’t believe cas just asked him that. “cas, i’ve been gone on you for _years_ , man.”

really, that’s all it takes for cas to stand and move so that he’s standing next to dean, who’s watched him in silence. cas doesn’t think he has the words to express what he’s feeling right now, so he does the only thing he thinks of. he brings up a hand to cup dean’s jaw , running his thumb over dean’s jawbone.

dean still doesn’t say anything, leaving the ball in cas’s court. “i’d offer to give you my number, but you already have it,” cas says, and dean huffs out a laugh. after that, cas doesn’t waste any time in leaning down and kissing dean.

“in case you’re wondering,” cas says, a while later when he and dean are both seated on the bench, their foreheads pressed together as they give their sore lips a break. “i love you.”

“are you two done?” jack’s voice calls from outside of the kitchen. “sam asked me to make lunch half an hour ago when he saw you two talking. he said, ‘if they’re finally getting their acts together, i don’t want to be there. i don’t need to know what happens next.’”

cas and dean laugh, dean pressing a quick kiss to the corner of cas’s mouth. “yeah, it’s safe now, jack,” he calls, pulling back to look at the doorway.

jack pokes his head in. “oh! congratulations.” he turns back down the hallway. “sam! they’re done! it’s safe to make lunch now!”

 _yes_ , cas thinks as dean takes his hand, pulling the angel to stand. it turns out that meeting dean had been worth the risk.


End file.
